Mushy Cookies
by squeakygirl
Summary: Ok the title is a little lacking but it's small fluff between Mush and my newsies character, Cookie. How will the Manhattan boys deal with the news that their lodging house has been taken over by the Queen's newsies.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N:** So I'm writing this little fluff thing because it kind of came to me when I was trying to sleep one night and perhaps by actually writing this I will be able to fall asleep finally. Please R&R and enjoy! (**And in case anyone here is an avid reader of the story IS FRIENDSHIP THICKER THAN BLOOD, I am going to apologize for how long it's been since we last updated. Don't lose faith in us, we're just trying to figure out where everything was going and we're kind of unhappy with how we last left it so getting around to fixing it is what's going to be the issue with us, but we do thank you for your patience.)**

**Chapter 1:**

Cookie rolled over and coughed loudly. It was the second day she had been sick and no one was letting her out of bed. Notes even took the day off of work to make sure that Cookie was in bed resting. Not that Cookie was complaining too much, she really felt awful. She had a horrible fever and couldn't really stand whenever she tried to.

"How are you?" Notes asked coming in with a cool washcloth to put on Cookie's forehead.

Cookie tried to sit up a little bit, "Oh yeah I'm great, think I'll go for a walk and sell some papes." She coughed again, groaned and flopped back down on her bed. "You hear from any of the boys today?"

Notes nodded, "Mush and Skittery were here around lunch time but you were asleep. They didn't want to wake you." Notes put the washcloth on Cookie's forehead, "Here I want you to keep it on this time. It's going to help break you fever. Trust me."

"Yes mom." Cookie said in a joking tone.

Notes was about to walk out of the room when they heard loud noises coming from the street. "What is that sound?" Notes walked over to the window and gasped. "Cookie, it looks like a bunch of news boys but they're not from Manhattan."

Cookie's eyes widened as she remembered a conversation her, Jack and Spot had a few days prior to her getting sick. There was a new leader of the Queen's newsies and they weren't sure of what to expect from this new leader they had never heard of before. "Let me see." Cookie got out of her bed and managed to walk over to the window, holding onto the frame for support. The adrenaline, pumping through her veins was the only thing keeping her on her feet. She shook her head, "This aint good." She looked around, "Ok this is what we're gonna do. You're gonna get a head start and go find Jack. Tell him what's happened. Tell him it's Queens."

"What about you, what are you going to do?" Notes asked nodding.

Cookie chuckled lightly, trying to stifle a cough, "Me? I'm gonna make sure that they can't follow us, I'm gonna set up a trap."

"I'll just wait for you and we can get out of here together." Notes said, watching the group of newsies get closer to the lodging house.

Cookie shook her head, "No way. We need all the time we can get right now. That's means we have to get to Cowboy ASAP. And besides, we can move faster and more quietly throughout the city if we're not together. You know where Jack normally sells, go now, I'll meet up with you and the boys at the distribution center in a half hour."

Notes grabbed Cookie by the shoulders and looked her in the eye, "Promise?"

"Promise."

Notes nodded, opened the window and climbed onto the fire escape. "Distribution center, 30 minutes."

"Yes now get out of here!" Cookie watched Notes disappear down the fire escape before she closed the window and collapsed back into bed. She felt bad for lying to Notes but she knew it would be the only way to get Notes to leave without her. It was bad enough that whoever was coming was going to have Cookie, but she couldn't let them get Notes too. Jack would kill her.

…

Notes kept running until she finally managed to find her brother. "Jack!" She called out breathlessly. "Jack!"

"Notes?" Jack turned around at his sister's voice, concern filled his eyes. "What's wrong?"

Notes stopped and took a deep breath and explained to Jack what had happened at the lodging house. "Cookie said she would meet us at the distribution Center in a half hour. We should go wait for her there."

Jack nodded. They had been afraid that Queens would decide to make a move now that they had a new leader. "Yeah the boys usually head there before going back so we can tell them what's happened while we wait for Cookie." He led Notes back to the distribution Center, keeping an eye out for any unfamiliar newsie they came across along the way.

…

Cookie had been lying in her bed, dripping with sweat from her fever and from actually standing when the first news boys came in. They instantly recognized Manhattan's second in command and locked her in her room. She had just looked towards the window again and was contemplating making a break for it when the door to her room opened, breaking her concentration.

"Well, well, well, it's been a long time Cookie, hasn't it?" A deep voice said from the doorway.

She looked towards the door, "Ace. I should have known you were behind this." A young man around 19 walked into the room.

Ace had jet black hair and dark brown eyes and was smoking a cigarette which he stomped out on the floor. "You don't look to well huh?"

"Since when did you become leader of Queens?" Cookie said, rolling her eyes at Ace.

"I'm not leader of Queens." He motioned to the door. "She is."

A young woman with flaming red hair and blue eyes walked into the room behind Ace. "The name's Brass and I'm the leader of Queens now. I know, you're wondering what happened and let's just say, brass refers to the knuckles I used to get rid of the last leader."

Cookie just nodded her head. There had been very little news from the revolt and based on what she was hearing from this girl Brass, it seemed like a coup had happened. "Right so how does that explain you hanging around with a flea like Ace here?"

Ace walked up behind Brass and put his arms around her, "Brass is my girl."

Cookie started laughing, "You're kidding right?" Her laughing turned to coughing. "So, someone is finally taking an interest in you, that's rich."

"Just keep laughing." Ace's eyes blazed with a hidden anger that only Cookie could recognize. "I hope you don't mind but uh, we wouldn't want you going anywhere in your condition so…" he motioned to the window where a news boy was sitting with a hammer and some nails. "The window might give you a draft so I figured it would be best if we kept it shut." He started walking out the door, "And if you need anything, don't worry we'll have someone right outside the door for you."

Cookie easily saw the hidden message in what Ace was doing. He was practically holding her hostage and he wanted her to know it. "I have to get out of here." She looked over to the window and saw that it had been completely nailed shut. She shook her head; this was going to be more of a problem than she had originally thought.

…

Jack and the other Manhattan Newsies were sitting around the distribution center. Skittery and Mush had been pacing while waiting for Cookie. Notes looked at the clock, "She promised she would be here." It had been over an hour since Notes had taken off from the lodging house.

Race and Blink came back to the distribution center with worry written all over their faces. "We haven't seen her around the lodging house is crawling with Queen's newsies. What do we do?" Blink asked looking over the faces of his fellow newsies. He looked over at Mush, who turned away, trying to hide his tears.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N:** So I'm gonna be honest, this chapter was started right after I published the first one. (I will wait a little while before uploading this chapter in case there are any important critiquing reviews) This is the first time that I've had some free time and writing is helping me feel better and relax some more. Plus I didn't want to lose the creative juices I have flowing. I would be disappointed in myself if I stopped writing this story. So please R&R and enjoy.

**Chapter 2:**

Jack paced around Brooklyn. As soon as they figured that Cookie wasn't going to meet up with them, Jack had sent Racetrack to Brooklyn to ask Spot for help. Spot had told Jack to bring his newsies to Brooklyn and they would figure something out there. They had to drag Skittery and Mush away from Manhattan. "Spot what are we gonna do? My boys can't stay here forever; there ain't enough room here, no offense."

"I know Jacky boy." Spot pulled out his cane and was tapping it on the ground, deep in thought. "Taking back the lodging house would be easy, except…" Spot stopped looking Jack in the eyes. They both knew that Cookie was still in the lodging house. They had sent one of the younger guys to keep an eye on the lodging house and he had seen Cookie from her window.

Jack nodded his head, "We can't let anything happen to Cookie. Skittery would kill us."

"We need eyes on their set up." Racetrack said coming up lighting a cigar. "We figure out what they've got going on in the lodging house, and then we can figure out a plan to infiltrate."

Jack looked over at Racetrack, "Ok then you go. Pretend that you're going to be an ummm…ambastard for us. Tell them you want to…" he paused looking for the right words. He wished Dave had been with them, he was better at these things. "Tell them you want to talk on behalf of Manhattan newsies."

"Tell them you need to see Cookie first to make sure she's ok." Skittery said walking up on the group.

Spot nodded listening to everything that was being said. "This is what you do; tell them you're there to negotiate terms for the lodging house on behalf of Jacky boy. Tell them you need to see Cookie before anything can be done. When you're there get the layout. When you come back, bring the walking mouth, he'll help us from there."

"Yeah but why do I have to go?" Racetrack asked looking at his friend's faces.

"Because if Mush or I went, we'd probably end up killing someone." Skittery said, looking down at the ground.

…

Racetrack was nervous walking through Manhattan he saw newsies, none of whom he recognized. He was stopped at the steps of the Manhattan lodging house. "Jack Kelly sent me. He wanted to talk terms about getting the lodging house back."

Ace and Brass looked up from the card game they had going. "Is that so?" Brass said eye Racetrack over.

"What's the catch?" Ace said standing up. "Since when does Jacky boy play nice?" He followed Race's eyes down the hall towards Cookie's door. "Ah, I see. Jacky boy is worried about Cookie."

Racetrack scowled a little. "You can't blame us for making sure that she's ok first can ya?"

Ace shook his head. "Down this way." Racetrack followed the familiar lay out of the lodging house. Ace motioned for the two newsies outside the door to step out of the way. "And you can't blame me for wanting to keep an eye on you two can ya?"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah whatever." Racetrack said opening the door. He looked inside and his heart jumped into his throat for a moment. For a second he had thought she was dead until she started fidgeting. He sighed before walking in the room and gently waking her up. "Cookie?"

She fidgeted a little bit more before breaking out of her feverish sleep. "What?"

Racetrack sat on the edge of her bed and held onto her shoulders, focusing her attention, "Cookie, it's me Race. You alright?"

"Of course I'm alright, except for ya know the guards I have right now." She tried to shake the sleepiness out of her eyes. "Please tell me you've got a plan to get me out of here." She looked over Race's shoulder at Ace and Brass watching them from the door way. She lowered her voice, "I gotta get out of here."

Racetrack turned around to glare at Ace and Brass. He turned back to Cookie, "We're working on it don't worry." She just nodded her head lightly. "You need more sleep." Before standing up he felt her forehead. "Get some rest." Race walked down the hall and turned towards the door.

"Hey! What about Jacky boy's deal?" Ace said stopping Racetrack from leaving the lodging house.

Racetrack semi-smiled, "It depends on how Cookie's being treated. I report back to Jack on how she is, he tells me what to tell you."

"Why do I feel like I'm being tricked here Race?" Ace said taking a step closer to Racetrack.

"Let him leave." Brass said putting a hand on Ace's shoulder. "Race can go back to his newsies, tell the big bad boss man that Cookie is fine and we can get what we want from them." She gave Racetrack a smile filled with venom. "But just know that no one double crosses me."

Racetrack just nodded and made his way back to Brooklyn. "Jack." Jack and Spot had been hanging around the docks waiting for Race to make his way back. "I got to see her."

"How is she?" Jack asked lighting a cigarette.

Race shook his head, "I've never seen anyone so sick in my entire life. Other than that she's ok. But they've got people watching her 24/7."

"That's going to be hard to work around." Spot said shaking his head. "And what about this new leader, what's he like."

Race laughed slightly, "Actually it's a she. And I tell ya, she's probably worse than Cookie and Shortstuff combined."

"So why did some girl decide to take over our lodging house?" Jack asked tossing his cigarette butt into the water.

Race's laugh died away. "She's with Ace."

Jack just nodded. The news boys closest to Cookie knew that Cookie once went out with Ace, and that it didn't end well. "Ok, so he's after some sort of revenge. Whatever we do, we can't tell Mush or Skittery that Ace is involved. They'd kill him."

"Maybe we should let them." Spot spoke up.

Jack shook his head, "I'm tired of waiting, I'm gonna go and show them that we mean business. Get Mush, Skittery, and Blink. Spot will you come with us?"

"Sure, sounds like fun." Spot laughed.

…

Ace looked over at Brass sleeping on the bunk next to him and sighed. He hadn't realized how troublesome working with the Queen's newsies would be. Not that he didn't like causing trouble for cowboy and his newsies, he just hadn't realized how deep he would get with this girl. He never really loved anything other than himself and power.

"Crap." He whispered and got out of bed. He quickly got dressed and went outside to light a cigarette. He held up his burning cigarette and watched it burn. "Some men just want to watch the world burn….or something else." He stomped his cigarette out as he watched some of the newsies coming out of the lodging house. He walked inside towards the two newsboys he had watching cookie's door. "You guys can leave today."

They looked at each other then back at Ace, "What are you talking about?"

"Just trust me and get out of here for the day." Ace grabbed a chair and propped it under the doorknob, "She ain't going nowhere." Ace hung around the lodging house until everyone had left. He went back to his bunk and grabbed the rest of the matches he had there. "They'll never expect this." One by one he lit each match, lighting a bunk or some other piece of furniture on fire. Once the entire book of matches was burnt out and the inside of the lodging house was getting smoky from the fire, Ace ran out of the lodging house, admiring the smoke he could see from the inside of the building.

…

Jack, Spot, Mush, Skittery, Racetrack and Blink walked towards Manhattan in silence. Each one had different things on their minds. "What's that?" Jack said looking towards the lodging house.

Everyone looked up toward the sky where Jack was pointing. "Is that smoke?" Mush asked.

Jack nodded and took off running towards the lodging house with the others following close behind him.

…

Cookie woke up coughing more than normal. Her fever had gone down a little and her cough had stopped somewhat but she woke up choking. "What…" She said covering her mouth with her arm as smoke started to fill the room. She got out of bed and made her way over to the door and her eyes filled with fear as she tried the doorknob and it didn't budge.


End file.
